The field of the invention relates generally to methods of manufacturing disposable absorbent articles and, more particularly, to methods of manufacturing leg and flap elastic composites for use in absorbent articles and absorbent articles having the leg and flap elastic composites.
Exemplary disposable absorbent articles include training pants, diapers, incontinence products, disposable underwear, medical garments, absorbent swim wear, and the like. Training pants (albeit, not exclusively) are disposable absorbent articles for use in the toilet training process. Toilet training is a process that includes many training techniques and aids that can be used by parents or other caregivers. One aspect of the total toilet training process is changing from the use of diapers to the use of training pants to help the child understand that he or she should now use the toilet.
Many caregivers underestimate the difficulty of teaching the toilet training process to young children. If a child does not respond to an initial toilet training instruction or introduction, the caregiver can be at a loss for finding techniques, methods, or teaching tools to encourage the child to master the art of toilet training. Thus, while various teaching tools such as books, videotapes, charts with stickers, personalized toilets, and interactive toilet training kits are available, there remains a need for improved motivational mechanisms to facilitate the toilet training process.
One motivational mechanism is the use of training pants having an improved aesthetic appearance. Specifically, a child is encouraged to wear a garment that resembles underwear worn by older children. Thus, there is an ongoing need to increase the appeal of the toilet training process to children, and to improve the aesthetic appearance of training pants. However, it is important that any modifications to the training pants to meet these needs do not compromise the use of the articles or any functional features of the articles (e.g., wetness indicators).
Current training pants typically include a waistband material that is adhesively applied to the pants and pressure bonded at its lateral edges to ensure secure attachment. After the waistband material is bonded to the pants, it is retracted to form a gather waistband of the respective pant. The resulting gathers, however, are often irregular. Additionally, the bond pattern at the edges of the waistband provides sufficient attachment but does not contribute to the aesthetics of the pants. In fact, the irregularities in the gathers of the waistband detract from the aesthetic appearance of many known training pants.
Often the waistband bond pattern of known training pants terminates before the lateral edges of the waistband material. Thus, occasionally the lateral edges of the waistband curl, expose underlying adhesive, and/or cause the training pants to stick together. These issues can create a negative impression in the consumer's mind of the product quality, and in some cases result in tearing of training pants.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a training pant having a uniformly gathered waistband, a waistband that is bonded at its lateral edges, and a waistband that does not curl.
Training pants typically include an outer cover, a body-side liner, an absorbent assembly disposed between the outer cover and the body-side liner, leg elastics, and flap (or barrier) elastics. The leg elastics are often disposed between the outer cover and the liner and adjacent the longitudinal side edges of the absorbent assembly. As a result, the spacing in the training pants suitable for placement of the leg elastics is very narrow, which limits the ability of the leg elastics to form an effective gasket with the leg since the absorbent assembly tends to pull the elastics away from the body when it is loaded with urine.
In current training pants, the leg elastics hold the absorbent assembly in place by gathering the crotch and enabling the flap elastics to make contact and form a gasket with the body of the wearer. This limits the effective MD length of the leg elastics in that the operative portions of the elastics cannot significantly overlap side panels of the training pants because doing so would put significant stress on the waistband and cause the training pant to droop.
Moreover, placing the leg elastics adjacent to the absorbent assembly and between the outer cover and body-side liner does not allow for elastic members to gather at the leg. Rather, this configuration creates a ruffle at the leg which makes the training pant appear more diaper-like.
There is a desire, therefore, to provide a training pant that enables an effective gasket to be formed by the leg elastics with the legs of the wearer. It is also desirable to provide a training pant that allows for a longer effective length of the leg elastics to thereby, in combination with the side panels, creates a fully encircling leg gasket. It is further desirable to provide a training pant having a more cuff-like appearance at each of the leg openings.
Furthermore, placing the leg elastics between the outer cover and body-side liner next to the absorbent assembly, as is often done in conventional training pants, limits the ability to use shaped absorbent assemblies since the absorbent assembly could interfere with the leg elastics. Shaped absorbent assemblies, however, can provide improved fit and exudates containment to the training pants.
Accordingly, it would be desirous to provide a training pant wherein the leg elastics did not inhibit the use of a shaped absorbent assembly.
Current training pant manufacturing techniques do not allow for a waistband bond pattern that covers the entire area of the waistband material because both the leg elastics and the flap elastics are “live” in the process until after the final cut-off. Pressure bonding a pattern over the entire waistband surface area would thus tie up the leg elastics and/or the flap elastics in the bonds, which would create live elastics running the entire length of the training pant. Such a design would cause fit problems, red marking, and process issues during folding and packaging. Moreover, the final cut-off during the manufacturing of the conventional training pants creates “tunnels” where the elastics existed prior to severing but retracted as a result of the severing. The “tunnels” are often susceptible to leakage.
Accordingly, a training pant manufacturing technique that enables a waistband bond pattern to be applied across the entire area of the waistband material and that eliminates the formation of “tunnels” is desirable.
In addition, current training pant manufacturing techniques often incorporate the use of a flap tackdown adhesive to ensure that the ends of the flap elastics are sealed to the product, which facilitates the formation of a containment bucket when the training pant is loaded with exudates. Currently, the application of the flap tackdown adhesive is not consistent, which results in the adhesive sometimes having a longer than desired tackdown length. The longer than desired tackdown length can significantly reduce the volume of the containment bucket.
As a result, it would be desirable to provide a training pant manufacturing technique that eliminate the use of flap tackdown adhesive altogether.
Moreover, current training pants typically include graphics in the leg and waist areas in order to provide the perception of encircling gaskets within these areas. Thus, it is also desirable to provide a training pant having leg elastics that extend beyond the outer cover thereby allowing the graphics to create a more noticeable encircling leg band.